'Expensive divorce with Uisce Eireann' is a concern for Leitrim, head of finance admits

The handing over of reins of water services in Leitrim to Uisce Eireann could be problematic for the council, it was revealed at the budget meeting which took place this week.

Cllr Gary Prior had asked: "Regarding the expensive divorce with Uisce Eireann; are there any unforeseen problems with them later on in the year?"

In response, head of finance, Vincent Dwyer, said that the council "have a team of about 45 in the water services and a number of staff has left who are local authority but who are under the control of Uisce Eireann and don't report to us. They have a decision to make over the next 12 months or so over what they want to do."

In January 2023, Irish Water became Uisce Éireann and took over full responsibility for delivering all public water services in Ireland.

Mr Dwyer continued that one large issue is "unfinished estates; out of our desire to make sure the county and residents of the county are supported, we tend to be the ones to go into an estate that nobody else wants to touch to maintain and do what needs to be done; that's not a sustainable situation because we don't have the staff to do it anymore. They are now employed by Uisce Eireann. That is the main area that concerns me."

He added that other operational issues of concern were the fact that the "Carrick treatment plant is at full capacity; networks to the south of the county need upgrading, maintenance; issues around wastewater treatment in places like Carrigallen, Leitrim Village etc."

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He said they are due to meet the senior team in Uisce Eireann to review these issues shortly. "When it goes from a local to a national scenario, you lose and we have lost that capacity and discretion to act within the county that we otherwise would have done. That is a big concern."

Cllr Felim Gurn asked if there was a budget earmarked for the maintenance of estates in the county. 

Mary Quinn, head of housing said that those footpaths are funded through the roads section but where possible, other funding strands are utilised such as the LIS. "We try to access different types of funding sources to try and tackle those. Where we have problem areas, we try to come up with a solution. That's the reality of the financial constraints."